Just as Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson left the office, the Chief Secretary sat down on the guest sofa. The modern British civil service system originated from referencing and imitating the Chinese civil service system; those truly toiling for government affairs were administrative officials like the Chief Secretary. Without the support of the civil service system, relying only on those noble lords and elected politicians, heaven knows what the British Empire would become.

Especially in the current situation, the lords of the British Empire would make various promises based on emotion to the voters and announce various seemingly grand plans in the House of Commons. But the real world is composed of truth and pain; everything these politicians say can only exist in speeches and must never be used in real political actions.

While lamenting the incompetence of the government during the economic crisis, the clichés of those experts on the radio were suddenly and skillfully cut off again. The BBC host inserted the latest news: "Listeners, the BBC reporter on the front line is about to transmit the speeches of the Chinese and Japanese military back via live translation. Please pay attention."

Britain was still the world hegemon after all, knowing well the importance of news timeliness. As the BBC host said, the British reporter in Tianjin Port was already preparing to send the latest news via radio.

Defense Minister Cheng Ruofan walked onto the podium. Behind him, representatives of the Chinese and Japanese militaries stood on both sides. The secretary of the Ministry of National Defense had already placed the manuscript on the podium table. Cheng Ruofan had read this manuscript, which had been reviewed by several departments together. Now he felt he didn't need to look at it again to combine the core ideas and specific content with internal and external logic.

Facing the audience, Cheng Ruofan began to speak seriously: "The geographical locations of China and Japan have determined that the two countries are neighbors who cannot move away. In the more than 2,000 years of Sino-Japanese exchanges in the past, the friendship between the two countries has deepened day by day.

"Even if the two countries met with force and tragic wars brought hatred, when the war ended, neither country let the hatred continue meaninglessly. And exchanges between the two countries have been greatly improved.

"Now, the relationship between China and Japan has entered a brand-new era. Abandoning hatred cannot be accomplished unilaterally, nor can it be achieved merely by forgetting the past. Only by understanding the tragedy of war and facing the future together can the two countries truly possess a common future..."

In the juvenile military school, the instructor had asked Cheng Ruofan, "Being a soldier means fighting wars. Who are you going to fight?" At that time, Cheng Ruofan was still ignorant and only said fighting foreigners.

In his subsequent military school life, through education on such issues time and again, Cheng Ruofan determined that although all foreigners were enemies of China, the most important enemy for China now was Japan. Although He Rui's method of conquering Japan was completely different from what Cheng Ruofan had imagined before, China had indeed become the core of East Asia again, and Japan had begun to lose the ability to independently formulate Japan's world strategy. No matter how fierce a hungry wolf is, once it cannot execute its own ideas, it becomes domesticated.

The speech before him fully respected Japan's national dignity and acknowledged Japan's strength. But its core was to incorporate Japan into the East Asian system, announcing the strategic arrangement of Japan as a member of East Asian integration, serving East Asian interests. Without sufficient political education to understand this deep-level political arrangement, all one could hear was a speech about "abandoning hatred and facing the future together."

As for the reactions of countries outside East Asia, Cheng Ruofan felt that the world did not lack smart people who could understand these words. But what if they understood the future direction of China and Japan? If they couldn't deal with the foundation of Sino-Japanese economic cooperation and effectively destroy this economic foundation, even countries unwilling to see China and Japan join hands could only face such a reality in vain.

Just as Cheng Ruofan expected, after listening to the speech on the BBC broadcast, even if the British Foreign Office Chief Secretary couldn't be completely sure of the Chinese comprehension level of the BBC translation, he sorted out the rough internal logic from the sequence of content description. The British Foreign Office actually had a judgment regarding Japan's obedient choice to submit to the East Asian order led by China. The Chief Secretary continued to sit on the sofa listening to the BBC broadcast.

At this time, Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson had already arrived at the banquet venue at Cambridge University. The large number of people in the venue surprised Minister Arthur somewhat. He had thought only a group of upper-class figures would attend, but unexpectedly, many teachers and students of Cambridge University also joined in.

Students wearing Cambridge University uniforms were surrounding some people who looked like French scholars, constantly asking them for advice. The students were very excited, and their speech rate increased a lot. Moreover, Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson even heard some students mention the name 'Communism.'

In such a situation, Minister Arthur didn't want to cause trouble. He turned in another direction. At this time, the Master of Trinity College came up to guide Minister Arthur inside. Passing through the crowd, they reached a group of people further inside. The Master of Trinity College said to a somewhat thin man, "Mr. Maboeuf, this is our Foreign Secretary."

Arthur was somewhat surprised; he had heard of Maboeuf's fame. A director of the Bank of France, rumored to be a big fat man. But the man in front of him wearing a well-fitted French suit had nothing to do with fat.

Hearing that the British Foreign Secretary had arrived, Maboeuf quickly turned around. However, a British professor who had been arguing with him was in high spirits. After Maboeuf greeted Minister Arthur, he immediately seized the opportunity to step forward and say, "Your Excellency Minister, I was just discussing with Director Maboeuf the view of blindly expanding national credit and issuing large amounts of currency. If the fixed value of the currency under the gold standard cannot be maintained, if fiscal balance cannot be maintained, if production cannot be organized in a free economy mode, this will not only cause irreparable losses to national credit but also involve moral hazards. For the state to forcibly stimulate the economy and regulate production, that is something only Communists would do! This practice will breed corruption, making backroom deals mainstream. Not only will transactions no longer be honest, but it will even make transactions evil."

These words were too intense, and Minister Arthur felt they were very inappropriate. But the surrounding scholars and business executives didn't seem to think so. The Master of Trinity College could only help smooth things over from the side. "This is just academic exchange; let's not involve morals."

In current European culture, academic exchange was considered to require free communication; otherwise, it wasn't cultured enough. Maboeuf didn't blame this group of British scholars for their sharp words; he was just tired of their old ways. It was just right to use the excuse of talking with British Foreign Secretary Arthur Henderson to leave quickly.

Unexpectedly, the British professors still didn't want to let Maboeuf go. Maboeuf could only turn around and say to those British scholars who had become stubborn due to academic discussion, "Gentlemen, British economic theory is inherited from Adam Smith of 200 years ago. The times have undergone fundamental changes. Adam Smith's theory was reasonable back then, but the world now is not the world of 200 years ago. Therefore, I am unwilling to continue arguing with you gentlemen on such a meaningless issue. Because with your knowledge structure and level of understanding, you are completely incapable of understanding the latest French economic views. So, our argument ends here."

Minister Arthur was stunned. The intense attitude of the British scholars had already surprised him, but Bank of France Director Maboeuf's response was in a completely opposite state to peace. Both sides were so agitated; it seemed the scholars of Britain and France were truly angry due to academic differences! Such things were actually not common.